To the editor:

While budget struggles mount for area towns, is it now time for local government to let the taxpayers know about the costs for unfunded financial liabilities.

Several years ago, both the New Bedford Standard-Times and the Boston Globe editorialized that sick day buybacks alone would bankrupt some communities in the future.

Was anyone listening?

Sick day buy backs (unused sick days purchased varying terms once an employee leaves a government position) are just one tiny sector of a government’s unfunded liability potential.

Others include shared healthcare costs, even after retirement; clothing allowances (in some communities called a uniform allowance); longevity payments annually, personal days for perfect attendance every six months, etc.

On March 7, I was one of a handful of folks attending a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2013 budget for the Old Rochester Regional Senior and Junior High Schools.

I was curious about unfunded financial liabilities and not hearing anything related to this but quite aware that seven teaching and custodial positions would go unfunded next year asked the question:

“How much money is in this budget for sick day buy backs and what would the liability be if the practice was stopped today and we paid these employees their due?”

The answers were not immediately available but were promised. Within hours the Superintendent’s Office volunteered the following:

Next year’s budget for the schools earmarks $11,050 for sick day buy backs. Seems reasonable.

As of last September, the Tri-Town liability for paying off the accumulated sick days just at the two schools would be $210,468. That’s frightening.

Then came the shocker: If all of the unfunded liabilities for the two schools, projected into the future, were paid, the cost would be $12,900,000.

This I consider unsustainable!

Particularly when the potential costs for all other town employees are not included in that figure.

So my question to Tri-Town officials: Now what?

Brad Hathaway

Mattapoisett